Episode43
Moves and Counter Moves We picked up with the fist of the light still aboard the Tenacious Hound, floating among the oort cloud-like debris shell at the periphery of the Boron system. Using the Hound's Virtual Environment Detector / Receiver / Projector Unit to observe the space Reavers at the Nexus Point, we were alarmed to note that they appeared to be in the midst of performing some kind of Ritual, (especially given that the Nexus was more than a 4-Hour Block away with any of our available modes of transport). With no way to intervene in time to stop them, we decided the best bet was to remain (hopefully) hidden and observe. As we had suspected they would, the Reavers opened a Quantum Rift on the Nexus, and as we had hoped they wouldn't, proceeded to deliver an entire additional Reaver space armada to the Boron system! Fortunately, at the distance the Hound was away from the new fleet, her combination of Anti-Sensor and Anti-Souldar Nano-Coatings seemed to do the trick, and we were left unmolested. As we watched, the new Reaver fleet proceeded further into the System, apparently moving towards Boron-D, the 4th planet in the system, (a Gas Giant). When they arrived, they unexpectedly descended in to its atmosphere, effectively hiding their ships from detection! It was fortunate that we had used the Double-FTL Shipgate Spell and arrived in time to witness this devious act of subterfuge. And/or bothered showing up at all. With a new problem to solve and a few days still before all of the various fleets were due to arrive, the Fisters immediately dropped into 4-hour block mode to come up with a solution. We were still concerned about the possibility of the Reavers reopening a Gate on the Nexus, and/or in or through the ship, so it was determined that we should not only continue the work on the Quantum Rift Inhibitor, (and all of the many levels of E-Cells required to run it), but simultaneously find a way to take out the hidden Reaver Fleet. Due to some lingering Sleep Deprivation, Pete was still having his space bacon & eggs the next morning when OJ, observing the Reavers with the VEDRPs Unit in the Astrometrics Lab, achieved a natural 20 eureka moment on the Reaver front. It turned out that the Reavers were actually hiding in the eye of an enormous storm swirling in the gas giant's atmosphere, a spot where the Hazard Rating was relatively less, and were protected by a giant PR Field 'Bubble' generated by one of a pair of huge Reaver mother-ships. The thought was that if we could somehow knock the storm off-kilter, we could slam it and it's higher HR into the PR bubble, bursting it and causing it to collapse. We contemplated at first doing this with some kind of explosive, but the extremely high HR down at the base of the Storm where such a thing would need to happen seemed like a potentially insurmountable problem. In the end we decided that a Probe that could operate higher up in the atmosphere where the HR was lower might be a better trick, so Pete got to work on a special purpose Drone, while Oz and Joe continued work on the many E-Cells required for the Quantum Rift Inhibitor. Meanwhile, we worked on our overall strategy for the upcoming battle. This time it was Pete with the eureka natural 20, on Military Intelligence. He figured out that the best bet was to have the Ascendant Fleet, (still fleeing the advance of the combined threat of Skellgrax the Reaver planet and the original Reaver fleet), try to stage a rear-guard delaying action, sacrificing a portion of its strength to hold back the Reavers. This would allow the remainder of the Ascendant fleet to stage a pincer movement with the Alliance fleet at Boron D to catch any Reavers that escaped our cunning Vortex Inducing Brightness Baloon Dropping Stealth Drone Plan, and then, if our previous campaign alter-egos from the Zone-Alpha were able to somehow manage to defeat Skellgrax, we would have a 2 to 1 advantage over the remaining Reaver fleet when it finally caught up. The problem with this plan though, was that the Ascendant Fleet is composed mostly of Robotic Fighters, which, lacking Souls, are not actually that juicy a target for Reavers. Of course the Souldar Mimic technology would easily get around this issue, but unfortunately, due to the Ascendant Houses' staunch refusal to embrace democracy, it remains under Alliance embargo. This led to some spirited long distance Political Negotiation, which Oz or someone who cares should totally elaborate on. Generic 33 Logger 11 Academic . Back to Space Junk LogCategory:Space Junk